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Tuned In+Television | 53 days ago

Programming Note: Dashing Through the Snow Edition

By James Poniewozik

It’s that time of year, when the Tuned In family overpacks the Tuned Inmobile, heads out to the Tuned In homeland in Michigan, and prays that a blizzard does not immobilize New York City again just before we return. I’ll be away through New Year’s, but I’ve loaded up Robo-James with a few posts for [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Tuned In | 153 days ago

Love to H8; Plus, My Fall Review Plans

By James Poniewozik

I know it’s not really critically responsible to simply link to someone else’s review of a show and say, “What he said,” but I’m going to do that with Daniel Fienberg’s review of The CW’s H8R, starting tonight, because (1) I’m not doing a full-length review of every new show debuting over the next few [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+News Media | 168 days ago

The Freakout Before the Storm

By James Poniewozik

After a welcome vacation and a less-welcome hurricane-related flight cancellation (which, luckily, set us back only a day), I’m back. Kind of! Like the New York metropolitan transportation grid, Tuned In is gradually and fitfully restoring its regular schedule. Expect delays, scattered outages and surly, grudging customer service in the interim. Hurricane Irene was the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 176 days ago

Robo-James Time Machine: On Account or Gift Certificate?

By James Poniewozik

If all has gone well, by the time you read this Mrs. Tuned In, the Tuned In Jrs. and I will be in sunny rainy Costa Rica, a destination I am not ashamed to say we chose at least in part because it had looked so attractive on the Prize Puzzle in Wheel of Fortune. [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 179 days ago

Programming Note: Bad Robot!

By James Poniewozik

Because you’ve earned a well-deserved break from reading me, I’m going to take one for the team and go on vacation starting tomorrow. Tuned In will chug along next week, with some daily posts automatically published by Robo-James, seen here picking up some extra money in a recent modeling gig at Comic-Con. (Fair warning to [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Tuned In | 197 days ago

Programming Note: Heading West

By James Poniewozik

I’m en route to the TCA press tour in Los Angeles, where I’ll be operating the Tuned In west coast bureau through Saturday. Much of today will be spent in transit, but I’ll be blogging from there the rest of the week–possibly a lot some days and little other days, depending how much time I [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Tuned In | 228 days ago

Building a Better Tuned In: What Would You Like to See Here?

By James Poniewozik

I’m still on vacation (this is a robo-post, so I am writing on the assumption that an asteroid has not struck the Earth in the interim). But I thought the long holiday weekend would be a good time to crowdsource some ideas from you, the readers, for a Tuned In redesign that will hopefully happen [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 232 days ago

Programming Note

By James Poniewozik

I’m going to be on vacation for the next week, traversing the wilds of southeast Michigan and, with any luck, having at least one sandwich at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor. Keep checking this space, though: there may be a guest post or two, and I’ve set up Robo-James—taking a break from his burgeoning career in [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 263 days ago

Housekeeping: Summertime, Plans for the Blog, Your Comments on Comments

By James Poniewozik

Even though TV is a more year-round phenomenon than ever, the end of the regular TV season—with the crush of upfronts news and all the season finales to watch/cover—still feels like finishing a race for me. So Memorial Day is a good time to do what I would do after running a marathon: catch my [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+284 days ago

Programming Note

By James Poniewozik

I’m traveling through Monday night, so posting will be light here. I’ll have a Game of Thrones Watch ready to robo-post after Sunday’s episode airs, and a post on last night’s Parks and Recreation, which I’ve seen in advance. But it will be a while before I catch up on Thursday-night and weekend TV, so [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Music | 300 days ago

Judging American Idol: The Final 7

By James Poniewozik

It was Music of the 21st Century night on American Idol. Which means anything recorded in the past decade — or maybe the distant future, when the tiniest and most delicate Canadian pop stars will beam viral music videos directly to your brain! Who channeled the fierce urgency of now? Who set Idol back a [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 303 days ago

Programming Note

By James Poniewozik

I’m going to be away next week (the Tuned In Jrs. are on spring break). But I will continue to haunt you through posts on this blog, run through the kindly ministrations of Robo-James. (Who, in honor of Passover, is now Golem-James.) Continuing this week’s theme, there will be more Game of Thrones-related material: a [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+314 days ago

Judging American Idol: The Final 9

By James Poniewozik

This week’s American Idol performance night was themed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which, coincidentally, is where Steven Tyler is stored in a plexiglass vacuum chamber in between episodes. The nine contestants had a long range of rock history to choose from, so who made the hall of fame and who made [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 321 days ago

Judging American Idol: The Final 11, Redux — Did Casey Vindicate Himself?

By James Poniewozik

The eleven remaining Idols gathered last night to sing the songs of Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Who Crocodile Rocked it? Who’s going to hit that Yellow Brick Road? Click the pix for my reviews: Read Last Week’s Review of the American Idol Performances

Tuned In
Tuned In+330 days ago

Programming Note

By James Poniewozik

I’m going to be on the road for work through Thursday, so posting here at Tuned In may be more inconsistent than usual. (In quantity, I mean. The inconsistent quality will remain unchanged.) I’ll be posting on the Big Love finale, for instance, but if my post hasn’t gone up yet, then it may be [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+333 days ago

Me on the Radio on Celebrities on Twitter

By James Poniewozik

We go from me on NPR to me, on NPR: Morning Edition interviewed me for a piece that ran this morning about Gilbert Gottfried’s Japan comments and the phenomenon of celebrity twimmolations. Because that’s how they get the socialist bias into your brain! With stories about comedians on Twitter! (But really, in case anyone’s seriously [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+342 days ago

Judging American Idol: The Final 13

By James Poniewozik

It was the first live night for American Idol‘s 13 finalists, and the theme was: songs by the Idols‘ idols! Who was worthy of worship and who had feet of clay? Click the pictures for my take: Read Last Year’s Review of the American Idol Final Performances

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 355 days ago

Vacation Robo-Post: The Office—NBC's Problem, And Yours

By James Poniewozik

I’ve said before that I think it would probably be best if this season of The Office were its last; the show may not be called The Boss, but it is Michael Scott’s story above all, and I’d hope that the show might get a liberating creative burst from not just sending off Steve Carell [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 356 days ago

Vacation Robo-Post: Comics Relief

By James Poniewozik

Last week, I posted here about my anxiousness, and excitement, but mostly anxiousness, about David E. Kelley remaking Wonder Woman for NBC. If there’s one thing from the 1970s original I don’t expect to survive, sadly, it’s the extra-length theme song (above), and credits combining old-school DC Comics graphics with Schoolhouse Rock-style ’70s animation. I’m [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 357 days ago

Vacation Robo-Post: Pimp My Blogroll!

By James Poniewozik

Astute Tuned Inlanders may have noticed that last week, I finally began updating my favorite-links blogroll, at left, and pruning or correcting some of the broken links. I plan on expanding the list with some new favorites too, but, you know, baby steps. Along those lines, this seemed like a perfect time to poll the [...]